In this dissertation I investigate how individuals group others into sexual orientation (SO) categories based on a target's known sexual behaviors and romantic interests. I hypothesize that individuals known to have any non-heterosexual sexual or romantic interests are more likely to be perceived as "gay" (and not "straight") even when there is clear evidence of heterosexual interests and behaviors as well. This phenomenon has been termed "heterosexual exclusivity" in this work. In the process, I examine relevant writings and research on SO, including works related to SO in history, the conceptualization and measurement of SO, determinants of and influences on SO, the essentialism and social constructionism debate with regard to SO, innate bisexuality, and bisexual erasure. Additionally, I give specific focus to how and why men are affected by, as well as perpetuate heterosexual exclusivity. In doing so, I examine writings and research on the role and construction of masculinity as well as homophobia and the overlap of the two. I hypothesize that adherence to traditional masculinity and increased homophobia are predictive of increased heterosexual exclusivity in men. I also hypothesize that men are more likely to be the primary agents and targets of heterosexual [exclusivity]. The results supported most of these hypotheses. / text

The news media are powerful purveyors of culture in North America. Crime news reporting particularly is an influential means by which the news media define the boundaries of deviant and non-deviant behaviour. For the purposes of the present research, I examined the ways that the print news media constructed cases of male-perpetrated Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) in Alberta. Using a social constructionist theoretical orientation grounded in an Ethnographic Content Analysis methodology, I examined 381 newspaper articles that discussed four separate incidents of male-perpetrated IPH. Approaching these data from the perspective of media reciprocity and a social constructionism epistemology, I considered the various ways that the print media presented these cases for their audience, but also the various ways that the audience’s expectations and the general zeitgeist of the culture may have affected this presentation. Much of the dominant discourse in the cases I studied was consistent with previous research examining IPH presentations in the news media, namely that the media present victims and perpetrators in stereotyped ways according to their gender and ethnicity. However, I also examined some less prominent themes, including those that were pro-feminist, ambivalent, fictionalized, and constructed for the purpose of audience titillation and voyeurism. Additionally, owing to the qualitative nature of the methodology, I was able to examine discussions that subverted the stereotypical representation of victims and perpetrators in the news media and examine how these presentations could affect audience understanding of the phenomenon of IPH. Overall, the present project led to a discussion of how the media construct various facets of psychology and feminism and how these facets are in turn constructed by society in a reciprocal process whereby the media influence culture and culture correspondingly affects the media.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare förhåller sig till och resonerar om hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck. Begreppet hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck är inte ett tydligt definierat begrepp vilket medför ett stort tolkningsutrymme för socialsekreterares möjligheter att konstruera företeelsen. Studien genomfördes för att se hur denna konstruktion tog sig uttryck hos enskilda socialsekreterare inom socialtjänsten i Sverige och om det påverkade beviljandet av insatser för klienterna. I studien har en kvalitativ metod använts för insamling av empiri och diskursanalys har använts för analysen. Med utgångspunkt i socialkonstruktivismen visade resultatet hur företeelsen hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck görs och konstrueras av socialsekreterare samt att det inte finns en "absolut" sanning om vad hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck är. Analysen visade att det finns en dominerande diskurs där företeelsen framställs som kulturellt betingad, där det skapas en distans mellan ett ”vi” och ett ”dem”, mellan ”svenskar” och ”invandrare” och där betoning läggs vid individens kulturella tillhörighet. Den alternativa könsdiskurs som framträdde i vår analys av materialet beskrev hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck som ett uttryck för patrialkaliskt maktutövande som existerar oberoende av kultur. I könsdiskursen beskrevs företeelsen som vilket våld som helst mot kvinnor och barn, där exempelvis män inte anses kunna inneha rollen som offer utan endast som gärningsman. Nyckelord: hedersrelaterat våld, socialtjänst, socialkonstruktivism, diskursanalys, begreppsdefinition / The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers relate to and reason about honor-related violence and oppression. The notion of honor-related violence and oppression is not a fixed concept, and it causes a noticeable room to interpretation for social workers individual construction of the phenomenon. The study was designed to see how this construct was expressed by individual social workers in social services in Sweden and whether it affected the granting of effort for clients. The study has a qualitative method for collecting the empirical evidence which formed the study. Discourse analysis was used for the analys. The result gave us a picture that honor-related violence and oppression are made and designed individually by the social worker and that there is no "absolute" truth about what honor-related violence and oppression is. The analysis shows that there is a dominant discourse in which the phenomenon was produced as culturally conditioned, which creates a distance between an "us" and "them", between "Swedes" and "immigrants" and where the emphasis is placed on the individual's cultural identity. The alternative gender discourse that also appear in our results, describing the honor-related violence and oppression as an expression of patriarchal exercise of power which exists independently of the culture. The gender discourse described the phenomenon like any violence whatsoever against women and children, where for example men are not considered able to hold the role of victim but only as perpetrator. Keyword: honour-related violence, social service, social constructionism, discourse analysis, definition of terms

Teorinė mokytojo kaip klasės vadovo veiklos įtaka mokinių savęs vertinimui analizė parodė, kad mokytojas įvairiuose moksliniuose šaltiniuose traktuojamas kaip kvalifikuotas ugdymo veikėjas, dėstomo(jo) dalyko ir mokinio psichologijos, edukologijos, vadybos žinovas, koordinuojantis klasės ugdomąjį procesą per įvairias pedagoginės veiklos sritis. Tačiau, ar mokytojo veikla, kaip klasės vadovo yra veiksminga ugdytiniams, priklauso nuo paties pedagogo kompetencijų, ypač bendraujant, giliau pažįstant mokinius, suprantant, kuriant įvairias sąveikos situacijas. Mokytojas ugdytinius turi taip pažinoti, įžvelgti jų elgesį, asmenybę, pastebėjęs neadekvatų mokinių savęs vertinimą, jį koreguoti. O juk savęs vertinimas yra vienas iš svarbiausių asmenybės vidinių darinių, kuris palieka neišdildomus pėdsakus visuose žmogaus poelgiuose ir veiksmuose nuo ankstyvosios vaikystės iki gilios senatvės. Apibendrinus mokinių savęs vertinimo problemą mokslinėje literatūroje, galime daryti prielaidas, kad: šiuolaikinėje edukologinėje, sociologinėje, psichologinėje literatūroje, individo savęs vertinimas – daugelio mokslininkų tyrimo objektas; individo savęs vertinimas traktuojamas, kaip sudėtingas darinys, jis neatskiriamas nuo aplinkinių; svarbu siekti adekvataus savęs vertinimo. Mokytojo kaip klasės vadovo veiklos įtaka stiprinant pradinių klasių mokinių savęs vertinimą. Teoriškai ir empiriškai pagrįsti ryšį tarp pradinių klasių mokinių savęs vertinimo ir mokytojo kaip klasės vadovo veiklos. Iškelta... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Theoretical analysis of teacher’s as a class tutor work influence for pupils self evaluation displayed that, tutor in a various scientific sources is interpreted as skilled worker of education, expert of management, lectured subject and pupil’s psychology, education, who coordinates educational process of class through various fields of pedagogical activities. However, whether teacher’s work as class tutor is effective to personnel, depends on educator competence, especially when communicating and trying to profound and understand them deeper, creating various situations of interaction. Teacher has to know the personnel very well, to perceive their behaviour, personality and to correct an observed inadequate pupils self evaluation. It is the truth that self evaluation is one of the most significant inner personality derivatives, which leaves indelible trace in all human deeds and actions from early childhood till venerable age. In generalising pupil’s self evaluation problem in academic literature, it could be presumed that: in modern literature of education, sociology, psychology, self evaluation of individuals is the research object of the majority scientist; self evaluation of individual is interpreted as complicated derivative, which is inseperable from surrounding people; it is important to seek adequate self evaluation. Teacher’s as a tutor of the class work influence in fortifying self evaluation of primary school pupils. Revalating hypothesis: it is probable that... [to full text]

The subject of this study was Swedish women's experiences of their everyday lives as lived between the demands of work and family. Twenty female civil servants were interviewed six times each over a three and a half year period when their work places underwent organizational changes. One purpose of the study was to investigate how women while managing everyday demands reproduce or transform the meanings of gender in their own lives. A second purpose was to discuss the impact of these processes on women's self-understandings and ways of relating to power and issues of gender equality, as well as the meanings of "femininity" in their lives. The repeated semi-structured interviews were analysed using two qualitative approaches: the first focused on the ways individual women understood and negotiated their everyday lives. It yielded four main areas of negotiation: the personal biography as a dynamic context in which a woman understands her experiences; the balancing between work and family generally managed by women; women's often somewhat ambiguous personal fit at work; and the striving for subject positions at work. In the second approach discourse analysis was used to study how gender is locally reproduced or transformed from personal experiences set in specific discursive contexts. Modes of understanding were in focus; i.e. the different ways women may integrate experiences as parts of their sense of self, depending mainly on social positionings. Important discursive themes were the women's self-presentations, their experiences of gender equality and power differentials, and their ways of relating to femininity. The dissertation also discusses the types of psychological theory best suited to the historically changeable contents of "femininity", in contrast to its more stable relational qualitites of subordination vs. superordination, and argues for theory situated in a feminist social constructionist framework. / digitalisering@umu

<p><font size="3"> <p>This qualitative study aims to use some of Frantz Fanon&rsquo / s critical insights to explore how individuals within the Health Sciences Faculty at the UCT experienced change and perceived the transformation process instituted by University management and the change taking place in the wider society. Frantz Fanon, a critical theorist born in a Martinique, university-educated in France and later employed in Algeria, wrote extensively on how the colonial condition affects the psychology of individuals, thus inter-linking psychology and politics. This study selected six individuals who had experienced the institutional context before and during the process of transformation. Data was collected by way of unstructured interview schedules. A Fanonian psychoanalytic-inspired discourse analysis was employed to analyse the data. The data showed that broader discourses influences the way people talk about phenomena. Our past still plays a role in the way we construct current realities.</p> </font></p>

<p>Recent research has indicated a significant increase in the crystal methamphetamine abuse in the Western Cape. The study aimed to provide an understanding of the interaction of the social and historical contexts in relation to the life experiences and perceptions of a young person residing in the Cape Flats. Primarily the study aimed to explore the factors that influenced the participant to use crystal methamphetamine. It adopted a social constructionist epistemological perspective and employed Bronfenbrenner&rsquo / s ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework. The subsystems of the ecological systems theory include the individual who is influenced by the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem. This was a qualitative research study that&nbsp / employed an intensive case study. Data was obtained through series intensive semi-structured interviews that were approximately 40 - 70 minutes in duration. The participant is a coloured female, aged 28 years from a high-risk community in the Cape Flats. Prior to the interview process, relevant permission was obtained from the participant, which allowed the interviews to be conducted and recorded. The data was then analysed using a narrative analysis. The themes that emerged from the research findings include: childhood trauma / sexual abuse during childhood / social milieu and norms / adolescent delinquency / the cycle of abuse / understanding crystal methamphetamine use and the consequences of crystal methamphetamine use. Findings with regard to the individual factors included psychological well-being, depression and negative affectivity, feelings of hopelessness, suicidal ideations, loneliness, past abuse of legal substances, adolescence, delinquency and childhood sexual abuse. The influential factors that emerged within the microsystem were lack of family support, dysfunctional family dynamics, childhood abandonment, uninvolved parents, several custodial parents, childhood disequilibrium, parental modelling and family drug use. Further findings within the microsystem included peer influence viz. direct persuasion of drug use, peer exposure of drugs, experimentation, delinquent behaviour, gang-related involvement and peer group acceptance. The mesosystemic findings included, lack of emotional support or attachments, social support, lack of structure as well as relocating to numerous schools and homes. Findings located in the exosystem were the availability and accessibility of drugs in all the communities in which the participant lived. Findings in the macrosystem included the social environment of the individual, including the social norms of the community and the home setting as well as the norm of violence, crime and gangsterism. The information and knowledge accumulated would optimistically contribute to addressing the paucity of qualitative literature and present knowledge to&nbsp / improve intervention and prevention strategies.</p>

This thesis is about medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds who work in Sweden. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds, this thesis explores the medical doctors’ feeling of professional belonging and boundary work. This thesis focuses mainly on the doctors’ experiences of being part of the Swedish medical profession while, at the same time, being regarded as ‘different’ from their Swedish medical counterparts. It starts off with the idea that medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds may have, or could be regarded as having, contradictory social positions. By virtue of being part of the Swedish medical profession, they belong to one of the most privileged groups in Swedish society. However, due to their immigrant background these doctors do not necessarily occupy a privileged position either within their profession or in society in general. This thesis shows that doctors with immigrant backgrounds feel that they are not perceived as full-fledged doctors, which seem related to how they are somewhat ‘othered'. The results show that these doctors cope with being seen as different from doctor with non-immigrant backgrounds, by using the notion of ‘migranthood’ as a resource in negotiations in everyday work life but they also do what they can to overcome the boundaries of ‘Swedishness’. Belonging should therefore be seen as having a formal and an informal side, as getting a Swedish license does not automatically mean that you feel belonging to, in this case, the Swedish medical profession. This seems to put doctors with immigrant backgrounds in a somewhat outsider within position, which seems having to do with boundaries between who is included in the ‘us’ and in the ‘them’. Lastly, these findings indicate that sociologists need to expand the understanding of professional groups to also include boundary work within these groups. In order to do so, this thesis argues that sociological theory on professional groups could be combined with sociological theory about social positions as that is one way to understand the outsider-within position that these doctors (and presumably other skilled migrants) have to cope with.

This research aimed to investigate the contributions of emotions and Emotional Intelligence (EI) to social work practice with children and families in Malaysia. A mixture of methods within an ethnographic approach was used. The Assessing Emotions Scale (AES) (Schutte et al., 2007) was completed by 105 child social workers. The levels of EI and differences in EI according to certain demographic characteristics were identified. Individual interviews with 25 child social workers were conducted to explore their perceptions concerning emotions and EI in the workplace. Observations were carried out over a period of three months to investigate how emotions were expressed in terms of behaviour. The quantitative results showed that levels of EI were high (mean=131.69, SD=12.483). The workers were reported to be emotionally intelligent in perceiving emotions, dealing with their own and others’ emotions and utilising emotions in their professional conduct. There were no significant differences by gender (p-value=0.367 > 0.05), marital status (p-value=0.694 > 0.05), age group F (d=3, 101), P > .05=1.468) or length of service F (d=4,100), P > .05=0.331), but there was a difference with regard to educational level F (d=3,101), P < .05=6.878). The qualitative research findings seemed to show that skills in empathising, expressing and regulating one’s and others’ emotional experiences, as well as religious practice factors, contributed to EI. The qualitative research findings also revealed the strength of religious beliefs in Malaysian social workers, which facilitate the qualities of EI. The present study implies that the spiritual and religious dimension of practice should not be ignored in social work education and training.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / In this study, the two most dominant sexual discourses were the male sexual drive discourse and the have/hold discourse. These discourses, together with traditional gender constructions, made condom negotiation difficult for women. Nevertheless, the discourses and constructions were also resisted and challenged. This study was limited by its focus on heterosexual women and the negotiation of condom use. Future studies which explore alternate forms of safe sex, sexual orientation and allow men’s experiences to emerge would provide greater insight.